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LM: Welcome to the Reading Room, Beverley!

Thank you for having me!

LM: Where did you get the idea for Devil’s Run?

Devil’s Run is the third in the Scandalous Miss Brightwell series, so the idea was sown in the previous book (Rogue’s Kiss) when Eliza, my heroine – seven years earlier – is run over by the carriage of the heroine, Thea, in that book.

All the stories in the series are stand-alones, however the romances in each book are helped along through the match-making efforts of the two beautiful, penniless sisters of book one (Fanny and Antoinette in Rake’s Honour) who’ve made rags-to-riches marriages.

At first, Fanny and Antoinette don’t like my heroine, Eliza, who has just become betrothed to their awful cousin, George Bramley. They think Eliza is cold and distant but when she rescues their children from drowning, they decide they have to do whatever it takes to stop her marrying awful George. Their ideal candidate is the lovely, noble, honourable, kind and gorgeous Rufus Patmore who has come to the estate where they all live to buy a horse from George. The problem is that Eliza has decided she needs to marry George because she’s learned that her long-lost illegitimate son is a regular playmate of the children in George’s household.

LM: Your series sounds like loads of fun. What aspects of the world of the Regency era appeal to you?

I love the gentility and notions of honour which are the wellsprings of great and inspiring acts of nobility and courage. I also love the clothes which make it much easier for a heroine to run or ride a horse sidesaddle in a desperate bid to escape, or to engage in some hot, sizzling passion since she didn’t have to remove her corset or crinoline.

LM: I love the Regency-era clothing, too, so elegant yet comfortable. What genre(s) do you write in? Why?

I write historicals – mostly Regency but also Georgian and Victorian. The follow-on from Devil’s Run will be early Victorian since it’s the story of the children, Jack and Katherine, who are best friends in Devil’s Run.

LM: Are you a plotter or do you write by the seat of your pants?
I start off writing by the seat of my pants but at the half way point I have to work out where my story is going and start plotting.

LM: What are you working on now?

Book 4 in the Scandalous Miss Brightwell series which is about – as I said – Fanny’s daughter, Katherine, and the foundling child, Jack, who is the illegitimate son of my Devil’s Run heroine, Eliza Montrose.

I’m also half way through a series called Fair Cyprians of London which are novellas about a group of ‘fallen women’ who work in a Victorian high class brothel and who are brought into contact with the men who have caused their fall from grace. Each story has a redemption/happy ever after ending. The first one, Saving Grace, was published by Pan Macmillan Momentum a few years ago and when I got my rights back I decided to turn it into a series.

LM: What would people who read your work be surprised to learn about you?

Perhaps that I was unable to walk until I was seven and had a world-first hip operation for which my surgeon was knighted.

LM: My goodness! Thank heavens for that ground-breaking surgery. So glad it worked.

A rigged horse race and a marriage offer riding on the outcome. When Miss Eliza Montrose unexpectedly becomes legal owner of the horse tipped to win the East Anglia Cup, her future is finally in her hands – but at what cost?
***
George Bramley, nephew to the Earl of Quamby, will wager anything. Even his future bride.

Miss Eliza Montrose will accept any wager to be reunited with the child she was forced to relinquish after an indiscretion — even if it means marrying a man she does not love.

But with her heart suddenly engaged by handsome, charming Rufus Patmore who has just bought a horse from her betrothed, George Bramley, in whose household her son lives as a pauper child, the outcome of the wager is suddenly fraught with peril.

**This is book 3 in the Scandalous Miss Brightwells series, though it can be read as a stand-alone.

~*~*~*~*~*~About the Author:~*~*~*~*~*~

Beverley Oakley was seventeen when she bundled up her first her 500+ page romance and sent it to a publisher. Unfortunately drowning her heroine on the last page was apparently not in line with the expectations of romance readers so Beverley became a journalist.

Twenty-six years later Beverley was delighted to receive her first publishing contract from Robert Hale (UK) for a romance in which she ensured her heroine was saved from drowning in the icy North Sea.

Since 2009 Beverley has written more than thirteen historical romances, mostly set in England during the early nineteenth century. Mystery, intrigue and adventure spill from their pages and if she can pull off a thrilling race to save someone’s honour – or a worthy damsel from the noose – it’s time to celebrate with a good single malt Scotch.

Beverley lives with her husband, two daughters and a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy the size of a pony opposite a picturesque nineteenth century lunatic asylum. She also writes Africa-set adventure-filled romances starring handsome bush pilot heroes, and historical romances with less steam and more sexual tension, as Beverley Eikli.

A war-weary soldier and a spy’s daughter race villains for the missing treasure bequeathed to her.
Blurb:

Daughter of spies
For a chance at true freedom, Paulette Heardwyn needs the fortune left her by her inscrutable father. But she doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to find it, and the only man with answers, the Earl of Shaldon, takes his secrets to the grave. Worse, the dead earl tries to force her marriage to his bastard son—and leaves her prey to a traitor seeking the same treasure she’s after.

Soldier, Steward, Bastard
Bink Gibson is ready to throw off his quiet life as steward to his old commander and head for India and the chance of prosperity. But before he can leave he’s summoned to the deathbed of the Earl of Shaldon, a meddling spymaster, a complete stranger…and his father.

And the Earl has set a trap Bink will never be able to resist.
Excerpt:

Bakeley reached for the bottle again, and her lips turned down in a frown. “I should like to hear what you have to say, Bakeley, before you have many more glasses of that.”

Bakeley set down his glass, walked to the cold fireplace, and rested a hand on the mantel.

It was such a fine piece of drama, even Miss Heardwyn noticed. She sent Bink an eye-roll.

“Well it must be bad,” Bink muttered.

Bakeley turned. His mouth worked as if his lips were struggling with some great piece of gristle. His hands slipped behind his back, a soldier at parade rest.

“Yes, well. You are each to receive a small sum as an inheritance. Not much. Not enough for any real independence. However, if you meet certain conditions, you are to receive a great deal of cash, and the title to the house and acreage acquired for you, worth four thousand a year, with the potential for more if you manage well.”

Bakeley’s gaze skittered from Bink to Miss Heardwyn, as he tugged at his neck cloth.

The lady gave Bink a pointed look. She tilted her head and he saw the pulse at her neck, a curl bouncing against it. Her lips parted and then pressed closed. She lifted her eyebrows.

She was begging him to ask.

Talking about money was vulgar. Let the bastard do it.

Well, why not? “I’ve no need for his lordship’s money,” Bink said. “Give my small sum to Miss Heardwyn, and you’d best end the suspense and tell her the conditions she must meet to receive that property and income.”

She went very still, yet Bink could feel the tension rolling from her. Could it be she was poorer than she looked? Her dress was finer than Lady Hackwell’s had been when she was merely a wealthy spinster, yet he knew Lady Hackwell had been an odd one. More ladies overspent on dresses to keep up appearances than dressed down.

“Bakeley, tell her what she needs to do to receive her property.”

Bakeley’s jaw moved and he took a deep breath. “It’s not meant to be her property. It’s meant to be yours, as in both of yours, upon meeting his condition.”

Bink’s blood pounded through his ears on the way to his feet. The Earl’s gleaming gaze when Miss Heardwyn appeared, Bakeley’s nerves, the Earl’s swoon—undoubtedly faked, like a cutpurse’s accomplice distracting a mark. Something here was amiss.

Bakeley’s aristocratic brow glistened with beads of sweat, and in spite of his tension, humor glimmered in his eyes. He cleared his throat and said, “His lordship wishes for the two of you to marry.”

Award winning author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature, but her true passion is the much happier world of romance fiction. Though her roots are in the Midwestern U.S., after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California and hasn’t looked back. She shares a midcentury home with her husband, her spunky, blonde, rescued terrier, and the blue-eyed cat who conned his way in for dinner one day and decided the food was too good to leave.

She is the author of the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best winner, Rosalyn’s Ring, a 2015 RONE Award finalist, Bella’s Band, and a 2016 National Reader’s Choice Award finalist, Liliana’s Letter, as well as her latest release, The Marquess and the Midwife. She is hard at work on her next series of Regency romances, but loves to hear from readers!